It is a matter of time before the Iraqi Islamic State (IIS) is militarily defeated and stripped off lands it controls in Iraq. However, this does not mean a permanent defeat of IIS. We have lessons to be learnt from Fallujah, Ramadi, and Mosul. The underlying causes of the rise of the Iraqi Islamic State are not tackled yet.

Iraqi Arab Sunnis are still marginalised, unlawful imprisonment of terrorism suspects’ families including women and children continues, and corruption is systematic. Militias are much stronger now committing atrocities similar to those of the IIS.

​The Green Zone Government is still a closed circuit for those ‘elite’ who came with the US invading tanks. Maliki is still in power (Deputy of the Iraqi President). Iran has a strong paramilitary presence in Iraq. The Iranian presence is a proven recipe of ethnic and sectarian violence in Iraq.

Unless the root causes of the rise of IIS are tackled, the next group to rise after IIS will be much harder to tackle. The next armed group to rise after the Islamic State in Iraq would blend more into the Arab Sunni fabric utilising tribal and sectarian rift lines. Most probably, the next rise would be the advent of the Great Middle East War Sunnis Vs Shi’a.

Things are spiralling out of Control in Iraq. Members of an offshoot militia of the Mahdi Army arrive at a funeral of one of their fighters who was killed in Anbar Province. They arrived with bags they raised & paraded outside their funeral chanting anti Sunni slogans while lifting the heads of at least 3 Sunni Civilians they have killed in revenge. These Heads are three of seven they claimed they beheaded in Anbar.

The Militia members carrying the heads were identified by locals in Basrah as Haidar Mtashar, Al Fraidawi, & Ali Abood Wadi. They fight under the Banner of HARAKAT MUJAHIDEE AL AHWAR, another offshoot of the former Mahdi Army Militia.

​In Basrah, their HQ is right next to that of the Badr Militia headed by former Minister of Transport Hadi Al Ameri. it is a large building on the Tuwasia interchange opposite the electricity distribution directorate.

This event only adds to the real concern that these rouge militias represent as expressed by numerous human rights organisations lately. These Militas are just as brutal as ISIS and will seriously undermine the fragile situation in Iraq. The Boundary between legal authority of the state army and armed elements funded by oil loots and pampered by Iran's Mullah Regime are blurred more by the day. ​

Iraq in CrisisSince Iraqi government forces lost control of much of northern Iraq to the armed group which calls itself the Islamic State (IS) last June, a wave of sectarian attacks has spiraled across Iraq. Shi’a militias continue to operate with varying degrees of cooperation from government forces. At the same time, actions by the IS have displaced thousands of people.

Current 214 Target 5,000Rein in militias in Iraq and ensure accountability for abuses. Since Iraqi government forces lost control of much of northern Iraq to the armed group which calls itself the Islamic State (IS) last June, a wave of sectarian attacks has spiraled across Iraq.

​Shi’a militias, many of which have been armed and backed by the government of Iraq, continue to operate with varying degrees of cooperation from government forces. They have been abducting and killing Sunni civilian men in Baghdad and around the country. In some cases the victims were killed despite the fact that their families paid ransoms.

The victims were abducted from their homes, workplace or from checkpoints. Many were later found dead, usually shot in the back of the head and handcuffed. In some cases, men have been killed, it seems, in reprisal/revenge for IS attacks.

Victims of a massacre in a mosque in Diyala province by Iraqi pro-government militias and security forces recognized the attackers and knew them by name, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Iraqi government should promptly make public any investigation of the attack on the Musab Bin Omair mosque on August 22, 2014, which killed 34 people, and bring those responsible to justice.

According to accounts by five witnesses, including one survivor of the attack, armed men, some wearing civilian clothes and others in police uniforms, attacked the mosque at midday in the village of Imam Weiss in Hamreen, Diyala province, about 50 kilometers northeast of Baaquba, the provincial capital.

​The attackers shot to death 32 men, one woman, and one 17-year-old boy, all of whom witnesses said were civilians who were attending Friday prayer when they were killed, with PK-type and AK-47 Russian-made automatic weapons, the witnesses said. All of the witnesses said they recognized the attackers and knew them by name.

Marauding pro-government militias are using the fight against the Islamic State as a pretext to destroy Sunni Arab communities across the country.

ERBIL, Iraq — Behind the relative safety of the large concrete blast walls, a Kurdish Peshmerga commander sat behind a dark wooden desk and described the situation in the battle-scarred towns in Iraq's northern province of Salahaddin.

"There is no one left in any of these villages, they are all empty," he told me.